I have a 2005 Grand Cherokee with the 5.7L Hemi and QDII, 67,XXX miles on the clock. While driving home from work today I noticed that when the vehicle coasts it makes a clunking noise that increases and decreases with speed. The noise only occurs while coasting, not when accelerating and not while braking. It seems to be coming from the front passenger side. I pulled over and pushed on the wheel in all different directions and it seemed normal and tight, no unusual movement. I'm a little concerned because about 2,000 miles / 2 months ago I had a repair shop replace a couple of wheel studs on that wheel that I stripped while removing and replacing that wheel to service the brakes in my driveway.

Anybody have a similar issue? Could those lug studs be causing this noise somehow? Thanks for your help!

It turns out that four of the five lug nuts on that wheel were only finger tight. I re-torqued all 20 lug nuts (only the front passenger were loose) and the noise went away. I'm not sure if this is due to the service tech not properly torquing the nuts, or if it's something that needed to be revisited due to the new wheel lugs settling in somehow?

I'm not sure how to think about this. If those nuts needed to be re-torqued after the service, shouldn't they have let me know? I was driving around with my family in the car, on the highway, with a wheel ready to fall off! Maybe I should have checked it when I brought it home from the mechanic. I don't know, I guess I'm just relieved it wasn't something more manor and expensive to fix.

It turns out that four of the five lug nuts on that wheel were only finger tight. I re-torqued all 20 lug nuts (only the front passenger were loose) and the noise went away. I'm not sure if this is due to the service tech not properly torquing the nuts, or if it's something that needed to be revisited due to the new wheel lugs settling in somehow?

I'm not sure how to think about this. If those nuts needed to be re-torqued after the service, shouldn't they have let me know? I was driving around with my family in the car, on the highway, with a wheel ready to fall off! Maybe I should have checked it when I brought it home from the mechanic. I don't know, I guess I'm just relieved it wasn't something more manor and expensive to fix.

Where your wheels new or possibly painted/powder coated? That can happen on new wheels so they should be retorqued after like 50 miles. It happened to my on my XJ when I had the wheels powder coated. Funny coincidence is it was my front right wheel that it happened on. It could have also happened if the service tech buzzed the lugs and didn't torque them to 80 ft lbs. I am just glad you and your family it safe and your WK is ok.